SOUTH AFRICA Continued
Capetown
Friday,
June 1, 2001
We drove on down to Rusty Petersen´s house, through vineyards,
and through the townships that lay like corpses outside the picturesque
towns along the Garden Route. We had another Wimpy´s lunch
(much better than Steer´s, however, another South African
chain), and got into Rusty´s place in the evening. We ate
dinner with him and his wife Brigita, Mike from Illinois, and
a couple more of Rusty´s friends. A work colleage of Brigita
and her husband also joined us, and she talked about her trip
to Europe. She had a wonderful time there, and she went into
detail about everything. It made us a little embarrassed. Here
we are on this big trip, and this woman had been to Europe for
a week and she still had the bubbling delirium of excitement
in her. We, however, were a little on the tired side. After dinner,
more talk about South African politics and the people let loose.
Rusty, later on, would joke that we had our own little Ku Klux
Klan meeting, but the talk was frank, if a little racist. Racism
in South Africa is at least talked about whereas its avoided
in the States. One man in room talked about how his help on his
farm attacked him with a machete. It was all very interesting
at any rate.
Saturday,
June 2, 2001
Everything in Rusty´s house moves a little slowly. He is
in his seventies, though he still has the energy of a fifteen
year old. Both he and Brigita live with their four dogs and three
cats, it was a full house. But both Laura and I were happy to
be in a house with people and not going from one hotel to another.
Rusty talked about his job as a day trader on the South African
stock market and we talked with Brigita about her work and her
possible employment in a Nigerian company. Mike got ready for
his trip the next day, and we all went out to a seafood dinner
that night. I read from Brigita´s extensive Science Fiction
library, petted dogs and cats, and had a great time.
Sunday,
June 3, 2001
Mike left for his tour, and Rusty, Laura and I went to the Canal
Walk shopping. It is an extensive mall, very American, very nice,
and we got some supplies and bought me a nice sweater. I was
getting a little chilly, down in the southern hemisphere. We
talked about going to a movie, but that never happened. In the
afternoon we watched a PBS special on dinosaurs, I read more,
and we all took it easy.
Monday,
June 4, 2001
Another day of errands. We mailed, went back to the Canal Walk
for some last minute shopping, and then drove on to Luke´s
place. We had met Luke and Sandra in Kuala Lampur, and Luke was
kind enough to invite us to stay with them. While Rusty lived
on the outskirts of Capetown, Luke lived right in the middle
of the action! He rented an apartment just steps down from Table
Mountain, with a view of the city to die for. We ate on the wharf
and talked about, you guessed it, South African politics.
Tuesday,
June 5, 2001
A last day of practice, we got our packs, put our new trekking
poles in our hands, and headed up to Table Mountain to walk around.
When we had been with Rusty, there had been a storm in town and
Table Mountain had been covered with fog. Now, it was perfect,
and the skies were clear, the views were good, and we hiked up
to the edge of Table Mountain, then turned down and got in the
car and drove around to the other side of Capetown. Just minutes
outside of the city, there are beach towns and gardens and places
that felt far away from the city. There were also slums and townships,
but those you could avoid if you wanted to. We admired houses
and even tried to get a realtor to show us one, but we didn´t
have much luck with that. That afternoon, after some calamari
for lunch, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope and we looked out
over the stormy seas and couldn´t believe we were on the
very tip of Africa. Not the exact geographical tip, but definitely
the psychological tip. That night we went with Luke to a hole
in the wall Portuguese restaurant and ate a cheap, delicious
meal. Luke then showed us around, and pointed out where he had
seen Nelson Mandela give his famous speech the day he was released
from prison. We then drove to a cliffside view of the city. Laura
loved Capetown, and given half a chance, I think she would live
there forever.
Wednesday,
June 6, 2001
I took the morning off and Laura went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens.
[Editor's note: she is very proud of the fact that she drove
in the city on the other side of the road, all the while shifting
with her left hand! Very impressive!] Cecil Rhodes had donated
the gardens so that surviving generations could admire the flora
of South Africa. Laura and I were impressed by that, but then,
as Luke pointed out, he had owned most of Africa. What was a
couple of acres to him anyway? Laura died and went to heaven
and took a lot of pictures. I rested, and in the afternoon we
went to Robben Island for a tour of where Nelson Mandela had
served 17 of his 28 nears in prison. The trip was very touristy,
but worth it, and Laura talked with a couple of black American
young women frankly about race. That night, Laura and I ate crocodile,
kudu, and other exotic meats at Mama Africa. It was our last
night in South Africa. After returning our cell phone, we drove
back to Luke´s place for a last night´s sleep in
comfort.
Thursday,
June 7, 2001
We rushed to return to the rental car, we rushed our goodbyes
to Luke, and then we rushed our way onto the nearly twenty hour
bus ride to Windhoek. The seats were cramped, but we had our
tickets, and we were off and runnning, on to Namibia!!!
The top of Table Mountain in all its glory
We got lucky, the one clear day was the day we hiked it
Capetown, Laura's favorite city in the world!!!! This is taken from our hike up Table Mtn.
View of the Table Mountain from our friend Luke's apt
One of the many varieties of Protea at Kirstenbosch Gardens. This is the national flower
The very very beautiful Kirstenbosh Gardens
Cape of Good Hope, can't believe I've been there!
Take me to the next country, Namibia